The new study conducted by researchers from Harvard Medical School, Mass., U.S., and the University of California, San Diego, U.S., said that happiness is infectious and can 'ripple' through social groups such as family and friends to up to three degrees of separation. This was found after assessing 4,739 people over two decades.
Researchers said that the smaller the distance between friends, the bigger the effect, which lasted up to twelve months. For example, having a happy friend within a mile of distance perks up your chances of being happy by 25 percent while a happy sibling family member within same distance boosts your probability of happiness by as much as 14 percent.
Co-author of the study, Dr. Nicholas Christakis, professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Mass., U.S., said that happiness is contagious. “This is probably the analogy that’s seen in financial markets where there’s a sudden stampede of emotional states.”
“It’s like if greed is infectious, so is happiness,” he added.
Experts have known for some time that feelings can be contagious over short time frames, such as seeing your close friend happy can lift your mood. But the present study found that even the happiness of a friend's friend perks up your chances of being happy by almost 9.8 percent and, interestingly, the happiness of a friend of a friend of a friend increases your chance of being happy by 5.6 percent.
For the study, researchers looked at the data of 4,739 people (from the U.S. Framingham Heart Study) in between the ages of 21-70, followed between 1971 and 2003 and assessed happiness using a simple, four question test.
Lead author of the study, James Fowler, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego, U.S., said, "People are asked how often during the past week, one, I enjoyed life, two, I was happy, three, I felt hopeful about the future, and four, I felt that I was just as good as other people."
The scientists found that happy live-in partners increased the likelihood of their partners being happy by 8 percent and happy siblings living close by perks up joy levels by 14 percent and neighbors by 34 percent.
Fowler said that he was using the results in his daily life, making a conscious effort to be in a joyful mood when he gets home at night, as he knows that his happiness could affect his wife and his wife's mother, or his son and his son's friends.
Fowler said, "These small things I didn't think to do for myself suddenly take on great significance -- I feel empowered to have an impact."
The findings of the study appear in the December issue of British Medical Journal.
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